scholarly journals A Sentence a Day – How to Engage University Students in an Online Daily Writing Task

Author(s):  
Naomi James Sutcliffe de Moraes

This article describes a case study of the use of a social network to engage university students learning English as a foreign language in an online sentence-a-day writing task. The research was carried out with A2- and B1-level English as a foreign language (EFL) students at a Brazilian university. The specific objectives included promoting the daily use of the type of language used for peer communication and providing some feedback. An analysis of student participation rates, overall and for each type of online activity, is presented.

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Daniela Itzé Arredondo-Tapia ◽  
Edgar Emmanuell Garcia-Ponce

Developing writing skills has become a priority for many students in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. To this end, classroom practices should be facilitative of opportunities to communicate accurately and fluently in written and oral forms. Drawing on evidence which suggests that task repetition allows students to perform subsequent tasks more efficiently and accurately, the study examines the likely effect of procedural repetition with four narrative tasks (i.e. narrating stories in written form after watching short animated videos) on five EFL students’ fluency and accuracy (AF). To do this, the levels of the students’ AF were measured during the performance of each task. Moreover, qualitative data from questionnaires administered to the students after each task were also included to better understand the behavior of the AF levels in relation to their perceptions of the task performance and the familiarity with the content of the tasks. The evidence shows that the students’ AF tended to progressively increase as weeks went by. The highest AF levels were found in the tasks where the content was familiar to the students. The opposite was observed when the students claimed not to be familiar with the content. The argument that we put forward in this article is that task (procedural) repetition may be beneficial for enhancing students’ AF in writing task performance; however, if this practice combines with the students’ lack of content familiarity, AF may engage in a dynamic interaction in which trade-off effects can be observed.


Author(s):  
Deepanjal Shrestha ◽  
Neesha Rajkarnikar ◽  
Deepmala Shrestha ◽  
Rojana Dhakal ◽  
Seung Ryul Jeong

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Monika Łodej

Research indicates that L2 reading competence is influenced by L1 reading ability, L2 proficiency, and L2 decoding competence. The present study investigates the significance of two variables, regularity and frequency, in relation to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading accuracy in students with a transparent L1. Fifteen 6th grade students in their sixth year of regular instruction in English took part in this study. Their mother tongue is Polish whereas English is their foreign language; thus, their language competence in L1 and L2 differs substantially. The research design followed Glusko (1979), Plaut (1996), and Wang and Koda (2007). There are four sets of real words. Two features of real words are manipulated for regularity and frequency. The study reveals that both conditions of script, regularity and transparency, affect reading accuracy in EFL students. However, the dimension of regularity is a stronger predicator of accuracy than the frequency with which the students encounter a word. From the pedagogical perspective, the collected data supports the use of structured reading instructions in the EFL classroom in order to restrain negative transfer of L1 to L2 reading strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-200
Author(s):  
Olajumoke Oyedele ◽  
Waliyat Kola Aderoju

The use of serious games is usually common, but digital games are not used in the teaching of German. This study aims to find out the attitude of students of German to the possible use of serious games in the teaching of German at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and their impression of the game ‘secret of the sky disc’ introduced by the Goethe Institute for the learning of German as a foreign language. Two different sets of questionnaires were administered to the students of German of OAU. The resulting data were analysed, discussed and conclusions were drawn. The results show the readiness of students of German for the use of digital games in teaching German at the university. The study adds to the limited literature on the use of serious games in teaching German as a foreign language   Keywords: German, Nigeria, perception, serious games, Obafemi Awolowo University, students.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Joshua Cohen

This study sought to test the hypothesis that topic-selection control influences fluency in writing. A total of 29 second-year university students (9 men, 20 women) in two separate classrooms engaged in a free writing activity using different topics (both teacher-selected and self-selected) in order to determine which approach was more likely to increase writing fluency. Participants’ written output was then textually analyzed for fluency using a type/token formula. A total of 116 samples written by participants over four weeks were examined to measure their writing fluency by counting the total number of unique words produced in a free writing task. Participants’ writing samples were then analyzed by conducting a correlated-samples t-test. The results showed the effect of topic-selection had a statistically significant influence on increasing students’ writing fluency. The results also support the claim that fluency development deserves a prominent role in second and foreign language classrooms and curriculums. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v18i1-2.10328 Journal of NELTA, Vol 18 No. 1-2, December 2013; 31-40


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Nur Arifah Drajati

Abstract. Speaking skill is essential in language learning and teaching process because the goal of learning a foreign language is to be able to communicate using the target language. Fluency is one of the leading criteria that the students should accomplish in speaking skill. However, most of EFL students tend to be more nervous if they speak English, and this will impact their fluency. The objective of the research is to investigate how questioning gives an impact for students’ fluency in academic speaking class. The researchers used narrative inquiry to collect and process the data using Photovoice. The participants of this research were 12 university students. The finding shows that the use of questioning can develop students’ speaking fluency in academic speaking class. As the implication, teachers can give questions followed with feedback to enhance the students’ fluency. Keywords: fluency, speaking skill, questioning, photovoice.


2021 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Rahmah Fithriani

Hanuer’s Meaningful Literacy has been used as a major justification for including poetry writing as part of pedagogical practices in second and foreign language contexts. Unfortunately, within the EFL context, many teachers are still reluctant to include poetry writing in their teaching practices due to the common assumption that writing poems in a second language is too difficult for students to deal with and therefore will be out of their reach and interest. This qualitative study, which collected data through observations, documentation and surveys, investigated how 171 Indonesian EFL students successfully write their poetry books in creative writing classes. Employing an ethnographic case study approach, the findings showed that students use the following strategies in writing their English poems: (1) Using popular poem templates as idea starters; (2) Creating a vocabulary bank for writing rhyming poems; and (3) Building emotions through personal story sharing and later channeling them through poetry writing. This study concludes that EFL students could enjoy poetry writing as expressive pedagogy and thus, debunks the negative assumption related to EFL students’ lack of interest and appreciation in poetry writing. Keywords: Creative writing, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), expressive pedagogy, poetry writing, Indonesian students


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